Coda
by amy1oM
Summary: A different ending to 'Alias' than what was presented in the official series finale warning there are character deaths up the wazoo but all the people who should have lived do live in this version Season 5 spoilers
1. Prologue

**Coda **  
**By** Lomeinie

**Rating:** PG/PG-13ish  
**Spoilers:** Through "All the Time In the World", the series finale - though this is **VERY AU**

**Disclaimers:** I don't own "Alias" or any of its characters as it belongs to JJ Abrams, Bad Robot Productions, and ABC Network. I have made no money off of this fanfic and I ask not to be sued for writing this!

**Author's Note(s): **Written for brendawood for the "Dearly Departed" Alias Ficathon with the following required elements:

**Characters to resurrect:** Jack

**1) Jack/Syd reunion  
2) Answers to Prophet V and Rambaldi's endgame  
3) Romance for Jack**

I am going to do my best to fulfill all of the elements here though coming up with something to explain Prophet V and Rambaldi's endgame will be difficult as I never really gave either much thought.

/  
Isabelle giggled as Agent Rance made a silly face while he finished securing her new diaper in place. He picked the baby up and he started to leave the nursery to take her into the kitchen because it was getting close to being time for her bottle. He stopped when Dalton appeared at the door, a loaded gun in his hands.

Dalton kept his voice normal as he spoke, "The security net just went down and I have no idea why."

Rance nodded, "Work on getting it back up. I'll stay with the baby."

"Right," Dalton replied disappearing again out of the room.

Rance went back over to the crib and carefully laid her down, "I'm sorry, Isabelle, but lunch is going to be a little late getting to you today." After the baby was safe in her crib, Rance drew out his own gun and crept towards the door. He reached it just in time to hear Dalton's cry of help before he was quieted by what sounded like a silencedgunshot. Still grasping his gun, Rance pulled out his phone and hit a number on the speed-dial.

"This is Agent Rance, requesting back up as my partner is down and there are an unknown number of assailants in the house," he said not even waiting for a voice to speak when he heard the line being picked up. "I repeat we are under attack!"

He laid the phone down the line still opened as Isabelle finally started crying from the tension she was sensing around her. Rance wished he could pick her up and try to calm her down but not with intruders in the house. "I'm sorry, sweetie, but I've got to go see what's going on out there. I am going to have to lock the door when I go but I promise I'll be back as soon as I know Dalton is okay."

Vance peeked around the corner carefully and saw no one in the main living area of the apartment. He didn't even see his fallen partner laying anywhere. Carefully he eased out into the room keeping low and as close to the walls as he possibly could. He managed to get the door closed, and locked before he moved out further aware he had very little cover to speak of.

He began to creep further out into the apartment when he felt a sharp prick in his shoulder, a prick that was proceeded by silenced gunshot that with the sound scarcely acknowledged by his brain. He found himself getting drowsy as his body slid its way towards the floor. He fought the drugged sleep but his eyes started to close and as they did he saw a woman with short dark hair step out from behind the bar in the kitchen. The last thing he saw before losing his battle was that she walked over to him, and grabbed the key to the nursery door.

She smiled at him, "Thank you very much for your cooperation." It was the last thing he heard before he slipped into unconsciousness. The woman placed the key in the lock and looked back towards her partner now emerging, "Hurry, Ilya, the others will be here at any moment." With that she opened the door and walked into the nursery while her partner proceeded to pack up the bottle the agents were going to feed the baby.

The woman walked over to the crib, and gazed down on the squalling baby who was thrashing about in her state of distress. Gently she reached down to pick up Isabelle up, "There there, iaeuo, it's all right. I've dealt with the incompetent fools left here to watch you, no doubt by your idiot grandfather." Isabelle stopped crying for a moment as she stared up at the dark haired woman who looked a little like her mama.

Her partner appeared at the door, "We should go **NOW**." His voice was harsh which caused Isabelle to start crying again as it frightened her.

"There there, iaeuo, your Auntie Katya won't let this brute hurt you," she said, shooting him a look. "Keep your tone of voice to something resembling pleasant around her as I won't have you scaring her, monsieur!"

Ilya gave her a withering look but he said in a sarcastic but softer tone, "Excusez-moi but I believe it is prudent that we leave now before the CIA shows up. Unless of course you relish the idea of being in their custody again."

Katya grabbed a few more items in the room, including a pink monkey out of the crib before she motioned Ilya out of the door.


	2. Chapter 1

/  
**The site of Rambaldi's tomb  
Mongolia**

They were at an impasse or so it seemed as Sloane demanded Sydney to return the Horizon to him and she refused. They both had guns pointed at each other, and both were determined to have their own way. Sydney knew she'd never hand over to Sloane what he wanted so badly as he had killed way too many people for this. What was there to guarantee he wouldn't kill them all after he had the artifact again and then just continue to kill hundreds if not thousands if not millions of more people are he left here? Who would be left to stop him then?

Sydney had noted that Sark had foolishly planted himself between Jack and Vaughn with a gun trained on Jack while another guard with his own gun trained on Vaughn stood on the other side of him. Sydney gave the briefest of glances back to Vaughn praying he'd get her signal and pass it along to Jack. They had one shot at this and if their timing was off she had no doubts Sloane would kill ever last one of them.

Sloane extended his free hand towards Sydney, his patience all but gone as he said, "Give it to me, Sydney, or risk losing your father and fiancé all in one day."

Without looking back to see if either knew what she planned, Sydney acted like she was submitting to what he wanted taking a step forward with the artifact, "All right, you can have it, just let us go."

Sloane nodded, "I told you, Sydney, you can all leave here and go be a family after I have what I want back." He extended his hand eager to receive the object he had been looking for over 30 years. Sydney inched closer and had nearly placed it in his hand when suddenly she threw the ball to the other side of the tomb where it hit a wall, shattering into a million pieces.

A black rage entered Sloane's eyes in an instant, and he pulled the trigger of his gun, having kept his aim on Jack the entire time. But when Sydney had destroyed the artifact, both Jack and Vaughn sprang into action with Vaughn sending his guard reeling with an elbow to the face while Jack had subdued Sark by grabbing his gun hand and twisting it around behind his back before he snatched it away completely.

He held Sark in front of him by the time Sloane had fired, and thus the bullets hit him instead of Jack, killing him instantly. Sloane would have turned his attention towards killing Vaughn had Sydney not fired off several rounds of her own, hitting Sloane in the shoulder, chest, abdomen, and finally in the middle of his eyes.

Sloane's lifeless body fell backwards into the pool of Rambaldi fluid which looked so like the blood of all of the people he had murdered to obtain his goal to find the ever elusive endgame. Jack released his grip on Sark's body, allowing it to fall unceremoniously to the ground before he looked at Vaughn. Vaughn nodded that he was okay, and Jack stepped forward to where Sydney was now standing by the pool of fluid staring at Sloane's body.

Sydney glanced blankly at Jack as he took the spot beside her and she said simply, "It's finally over, Dad. Sloane will never able to hurt us or any of the people we love ever again."

"Sloane maybe dead but I don't think it's over yet," Vaughn said as he joined them.

Jack looked at him, nodding his agreement, "Sloane had an unseen partner."

"And if I had to guess who it was I would say Irina," Vaughn said.

Sydney finally tore her eyes from Sloane to look at Vaughn, "Why do you think Mom is involved in this? Why would she be working with Sloane after he killed Nadia?"

Vaughn gestured in the general direction where Sark's body was laying, "Sark's presence here seems to suggest something was going on between Sloane and Derevko."

"Sloane had the Horizon," Jack added, and Sydney turned to him, "You know yourself that your mother stole it at the bank."

"If you're both right then how do we go about finding her, Dad?"

"We don't," Jack answered. "Irina was expecting some sort of payoff from this partnership and when Sark doesn't return with that payoff, she will have to come out of hiding to find out why he didn't return."

"We should contact APO and tell them what has happened," Vaughn said and with that it was agreed they should start the ascent to the surface. Sloane and Sark were both left where they had fallen while the guard Vaughn had knocked out was handcuffed and taken up to the surface with them. Once they'd reached the surface, Sydney made sure their prisoner was secured while Jack took out the sat-com phone they had brought with them. But before Jack could say anything about what happened in the tomb, Dixon was giving them some very bad news.

Dixon said simply, "About an hour ago we received an urgent message from Agent Dalton stating that he and Agent Rance were under attack after their security net went down just moments before. Agents arrived within minutes of Agent Dalton's call but by that time all they found in Sydney's apartment was both agents unconscious and… an empty cradle."

Sydney gasped as she clamped her hand over her mouth, and Vaughn wrapped his arm around her before he said, "Are you saying someone has abducted Isabelle?"


	3. Chapter 2

_Sydney gasped as she clamped her hand over her mouth, and Vaughn wrapped his arm around her before he said, "Are you saying someone has abducted Isabelle?"_

A moment of deafening silence passed before Dixon answered, "Yes, I am." Jack recovered from the shock of the news first and he began to issue orders when Dixon interrupted him, "I've already put out a directive that all commercial flights be grounded though it's safe to assume whoever did this has probably chartered a private flight."

"Have either of the agents regained consciousness yet, Dixon?" Vaughn asked.

"Yes, they have but unfortunately neither of them seem to remember anything beyond the fact the security net had just went down. I've requested that they both undergo regression therapy and in the meantime we are searching for other leads. In the meantime a chopper is headed to your position and a flight will be waiting to bring you back."

"Acknowledged."

"The chopper is ten minutes out from your position," Dixon said, "Syd, Vaughn, I promise you we're doing everything we can to find Isabelle. We are going to bring her home safe and sound to you."

/  
In the time it took them to get from the site in Mongolia and to the plane Dixon had standing by little progress had been made in finding Isabelle or those who abducted her. Because the security net had went down before the attack on the agents there was no footage from any of the cameras the agents had placed throughout the apartment. Their only hope was the regression therapy Dixon had requested for the agents but the doctors had been unable to awaken them as of yet from their drug induced sleep. The majority of the flight home was a quiet one as all three quickly exhausted their extensive pool of contacts. They had all asked but no one had heard a thing about the disappearance of a baby whose kidnapping heralded a huge potential for extortion because of the CIA connections both her parents and grandfather all held.

Shortly after he had settled down beside Sydney, Vaughn found himself first fighting drowsiness which fast became a feel of exhaustion until finally he had to close his eyes. With his hand interlaced with Sydney's Vaughn had succumbed to his weariness, and while some come have viewed it as unconcern for their missing baby daughter, Sydney knew that he couldn't help it as he had already pushed himself beyond his limits anyways. She watched him for a few minutes before getting up to retrieve a blanket to cover him, and after she had kissed him she turned to see Jack watching them. Instead of sitting down beside Vaughn again she walked over to where her dad was and took the seat beside him. She surprised Jack by leaning close to him and she was about to lay her head on his shoulder when he wrapped his arm around her.

Sydney's tears started flowing when she felt her father's comforting touch which was quickly followed by Jack's voice speaking in quiet tones, "We're going to find her, Sydney, you have to believe that." His voice held a calming reassured determination to it betraying nothing of the fear he was feeling over the disappearance of his granddaughter.

"I'm scared, Dad, I'm so scared for her. What if whoever has her hurts her or what if they don't take care of her? What if they just let her cry when she doesn't want to sleep or what if she's afraid?" Sydney said, wiping away one of her tears, "I think I can finally understand what I've put you through all these years I've been going on missions, first for SD-6 and then the CIA, and then for APO."

There was hardly a true comparison here because even though Jack had been worried and scared almost everyday for Sydney once she had joined SD-6, she had also been very capable of defending herself. Isabelle however was at the complete mercy of whomever had taken her from her crib. Still Jack knew it would do no good to point out the differences between Sydney and Isabelle's situations, "I admit everyday when I read the reports for your missions at SD-6, I nearly had a heart attack when I read about some of the things you did or were put through."

"Wait, Dad, I always assumed that even before I found out the truth that you were working for SD-6 that you were somehow involved in planning the missions I went on. Now you're telling me that you didn't?" Sydney asked incredulously. She knew her father was considered to be one of the world's best game theorist in the intelligence community so it made no sense to her that they wouldn't have used his mind on the designing of missions.

"Because he was my superior at the CIA, Sloane knew about Project Christmas," Jack responded, "He knew that you had training from it but he recruited you because he knew it was a way to insure my loyalty to the Alliance, and more importantly to him."

"And one of the ways they exacted their control over you was to never let you have a say in my welfare by helping to plan the missions I went on," Sydney stated.

The only confirmation Jack gave was a nodded, as he watched Sydney closely. In the last few minutes they had been talking her tears had stopped although she was clearly still upset. Now as he watched her Jack could see that her tears were threatening to flow again. He spoke gently to her as he said, "Sweetheart, you should get some rest. Isabelle will get no benefit from her mother being exhausted and I know you want to be on the team when we bring her home again."

Sydney might have protested what he said if she hadn't have given an involuntary huge yawn just then. She pulled away from Jack, "You're probably right, Dad, I should try to get some sleep." She kissed his cheek before she stood up, stretching, "You should try to get some rest as I am sure you'll want to be a part of the team too."

"I will, sweetheart," Jack said.

Sydney fished another blanket from one of the storage compartments to get to Jack before she settled beside Vaughn, pulling a piece of his blanket over her before she snuggled beside him. The last thought to enter Jack's mind before he closed his eyes was how they'd make whomever had taken Isabelle pay for dragging his sweet baby granddaughter into this.


End file.
